When you’re interviewing new team members for your medical practice, you’re looking for someone with experience, a positive outlook, a personality that fits with your other staff members, and a background of punctuality, among other traits. But you should also be reviewing the person’s emotional intelligence. This refers to someone’s ability to notice, evaluate, and navigate emotions not just in themselves, but among others as well.
For instance, emotional intelligence can allow a person to “read the room,” notice when someone is about to get upset, navigate change, resolve conflicts in a healthy way, and collaborate well with team members. These are all positive traits to have among your staff.
You can improve your ability to hire strong employees by checking for emotional intelligence during the interview stage in a few strategic ways.
Ensure That the Interviewee Feels Comfortable
To get the most accurate feel for your interviewee’s true personality, you should first make them feel comfortable. That will help their genuine essence come out so you’re seeing the real person and not their “interview personality.” Offer them water, coffee, a comfortable place to sit, or anything else that might make them feel more at home. They’ll see the interview as a warm welcome rather than an interrogation, and you’ll be better able to gauge their emotional intelligence in a more efficient way.
Ask About Previous Tension
It’s a good idea to ask interviewees about previous work tensions and how they handled them. For instance, “Have you ever experienced conflict on a team before? How did you handle that?” If the interviewee immediately gets heated, telling you about a problematic employee that got under their skin, they may not be a fit for a medical practice. Instead, look for someone who has found calm ways to ease tension among teammates, and who acknowledges that conflicts are part of life and that they can navigate them without making situations worse.
Evaluate How They Handle Demotivation
It’s normal to go through periods when motivation isn’t particularly strong at work, and while some employees leave or create drama in these situations, someone with strong emotional intelligence can manage them with ease. That’s why it’s a good idea to ask a question like, “When you don’t feel motivated at work, what do you do to overcome it?”
If the employee says they take time off and go home, that may be a red flag, since there won’t always be time to disengage. A sign of strong emotional intelligence would be an answer that shows that the interviewee can self-motivate. For instance, they might say, “I ask patients specific questions about how their day is going. I can tell it brightens their day, and it motivates me and reminds me why I love working in health care.” This is a positive sign and shows that the interviewee has strong emotional intelligence.
Inquire About Past Mistakes
Everyone makes mistakes at work, but how a prospective employee handles errors will tell you more about them than the mistakes themselves. If they got into an argument over a mistake or got defensive, it could be a red flag. But if they admitted the mistake, rectified it, and moved on, you could have a good team player on your hands.
You might ask the question, “Tell me about a mistake you’ve made in a previous job, and how you handled it.” A good response will not only tell you how they managed the mistake and fixed it, but how they changed their processes so such mistakes wouldn’t occur again in the future.
To learn more about hiring staff members strategically so they’ll stay with your practice for years to come, check out the online training session, Proven Retention Tactics Stop Your Best Staff From Quitting, presented by Susan Childs, FACMPE. During the 60-minute training, you’ll find out how to keep staff members happy and engaged so they don’t want to leave your practice.
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